What's On

The Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University is a dynamic hub of ideas, public policy, culture, history & civic engagement. Our home is the beautiful, heritage-listed Female Orphan School, where we host a range of exhibitions and events, as we seek to commemorate & continue the work of one of Australia’s most respected Prime Ministers, the Hon Gough Whitlam.

65 original artworks by people serving custodial sentences in Australia and around the world, accompanied by an ambient soundscape of poems written by people in prison and recited by professional actors.

Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders explores the stories of a selection of NSW women who were leaders and trailblazers in public sector work, alongside the perspectives of women working in key public sphere roles today.

Melding past and present, this unique exhibition asks provocative questions about women, the public sphere and leadership. Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders is a new exhibition curated and produced by State Archives and Records NSW, presented at the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University from 26 April to 27 July 2018.

Permanent Exhibition:A Changing Australia: The Time of Gough WhitlamIn its first year, the Whitlam Government passed 203 bills – more legislation than any other federal government had ever enacted in a single year. This exhibition explores how Gough Whitlam and his government not only reformed Australia's laws and institutions, but changed the way Australia sees itself.

To celebrate the arrival of touring exhibition The Way of the Reformer | Gough Whitlam in his Century in Broken Hill, the Hon. John Faulkner, Chair of the Whitlam Institute, will speak at Trades Hall about the legacy of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and the government he led.

Jointly hosted by the Challenging Racism Project, the Whitlam Institute and the Asia Society, this symposium is not to be missed.

With an official welcome from WSU Deputy Chancellor Liz Dibbs and opening remarks by Tim Soutphommasane (Race Discrimination Commissioner) and Philipp Ivanov (CEO of Asia Society Australia), the event will provide a forum to discuss contemporary challenges facing the Chinese Australian community.

What has happened to the project of Indigenous self-determination initiated by the Whitlam Government? Join us for a one-day symposium to reflect on the project of Indigenous self-determination and its various dimensions, presented by the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University and Nura Gili, UNSW Sydney.

Simon Tedeschi is one of Australia’s most renowned and sought-after classical pianists, and his Whitlam Institute recital will include Chopin, Debussy, Gershwin, and a little bit of Christmas.

This event will showcase one of Sydney’s colonial architectural treasures, the Female Orphan School, as well as a concert grand piano that was a gift to the university two decades ago by the Diane Bawden Memorial Foundation, in her loving memory.

In these challenging global times, the SDGs offer us a roadmap for what it might take to achieve a sustainable future for us all. They represent in the truest sense, an opportunity to think globally and act locally for the future of humanity and the planet.

A thought-provoking presentation from Australian lawyer Paul White as he draws on his extensive experience in humanitarian crises around the world and asks, “Can civilians be better protected in conflict?”

Without Consent is much more than an exhibition. It is a significant contribution to the narrative of our national history, giving voice to an estimated 250,000 Australians affected by forced adoption policies and practices, largely occurring between 1950 and 1975.

From literally opposite sides of the world, join award-winning playwrights Stephen Orlov of Montreal and Samah Sabawi of Melbourne as they discuss the complexities, obstacles and creative process in editing this groundbreaking collection.

Indigenous Australians make up 27% of the national prison population – a statistic that has almost doubled from 14% at the time of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Almost 79% of Indigenous Australians in custody have been in prison before.

The Honourable Michael Kirby – jurist, academic and former Justice of the High Court of Australia, has warned that holding a plebiscite on same-sex marriage legislation would set a dangerous precedent in this country.

Western Sydney Community Forum and the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University are proud to co-host the launch of Planning, Funding, and Community Action: The Area Assistance Story, a new book written by Judi Bamforth, Barbara Gapps, Robin Gurr, Amanda Howard, Jenny Onyx, and Margot Rawsthorne.

We’re exploring the man behind the legacy – from the bright schoolboy growing up in a fledgling Canberra to the RAAF navigator braving hazardous skies at the height of the Pacific war, to the young father eating spag Bol with his family on the urban fringe.